Relationship between body composition and lung function in elderly men and women

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between body composition parameters and lung functions including vital capacity (VC), forced vital capacity ( FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second ( FEV1), FEV1:VC ratio, and FEV1:FVC ratio in elderly men and women. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional evaluation of 99 healthy men and women ( aged 60-88 years). Anthropometric and body composition parameters ( including fat mass [ FM], fat-free mass [ FFM] and percentage body fat [%BF]) were evaluated using the skinfold method, and lung function was examined using spirometry. Results: Data analysis showed %BF, body FM and body mass index ( BMI) of women to be significantly higher than men. Also, their body FFM was significantly less than men ( P< 0.05). Lung volume ( P< 0.01) and lung capacity values ( P< 0.05) ( VC, FVC, FEV1, FEV1: VC, FEV1: FVC) of women were significantly less than men. There was a positive significant relationship between the FFM versus FVC and FEV1 values of women and men. A negative significant relationship was demonstrated between body FM, BMI and FVC of all subjects. Conclusion: This investigation showed that women aged between 60 and 88 years had a lower lung capacity compared to men of the same age. Older women were found to have a higher body fat ratio than men, and it was found that increasing %BF and BMI had a negative effect on lung functions in both sexes.